Read the excerpt from "A Quilt of a Country."

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What is the point of this splintered whole? What is the point of a nation in which Arab cabbies chauffeur Jewish passengers through the streets of New York—and in which Jewish cabbies chauffeur Arab passengers, too, and yet speak in theory of hatred, one for the other? What is the point of a nation in which one part seems to be always on the verge of fisticuffs with another: blacks and whites, gays and straights, left and right, Pole and Chinese and Puerto Rican and Slovenian? Other countries with such divisions have in fact divided into new nations with new names, but not this one, impossibly interwoven even in its hostilities.

Once these disparate parts were held together by a common enemy, by the fault lines of world wars and the electrified fence of communism. With the end of the Cold War there was the creeping concern that without a focus...

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Which statement best traces the development of a central idea from one paragraph to the next?

A. The first paragraph describes different groups of Americans. The second paragraph discusses what unifies them.

B. The first paragraph describes ideals shared by most Americans. The second paragraph describes how these ideals sometimes differ.

C. The first paragraph describes immigrant groups. The second paragraph discusses native-born Americans.

D. The first paragraph describes America during peaceful times. The second paragraph discusses America during times of war.